


sentinel

by triforced



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, Humor, M/M, drool, dumb boys, lots of drool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-04 23:33:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6680407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triforced/pseuds/triforced
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He is looking at Hinata because Hinata is slumped over, his cheek smushed up against Kageyama's shoulder, his mouth open, his eyes closed. Asleep. Dead asleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sentinel

Kageyama feels like one of those creeps on the train that have eyes everywhere, most of which come to about waist-level, the better to look up skirts with.

He isn't looking up a skirt, though, he's looking at Hinata. ( _Looking_ not leering, the distinction is very important.)

He is looking at Hinata because Hinata is slumped over, his cheek smushed up against Kageyama's shoulder, his mouth open, his eyes closed. Asleep. Dead asleep. They're on the way home from a practice match so the entire team is asleep on the bus, all except for Kageyama, who is staring - no, looking at Hinata because he cannot keep his eyes to himself. Really. It's almost a compulsion, whenever he decides no, I'm done, I'm just going to focus on the seat in front of me until I'm sleepy enough to drop off, Hinata or no Hinata, his eyes twitch over and he's stuck.

Shove him away, he thinks while he watches Hinata's mouth move, his eyelashes flutter (they're so light and feathery). As the minutes pass, the thought moves further and further from his mind until he doesn't remember thinking it. His shoulder is Hinata and Hinata is his shoulder, the two things are inseparable from one another. I have an orange-haired growth, he thinks instead. I'll need surgery. It's almost enough to make him laugh and he bites his lip against it - not only a creep, but a creep who laughs at his own jokes. Someone put him out of his misery.

And then he thinks, when did we get so close?

That's kind of a loaded question, one he isn't particularly in the mood to parse. The short answer is volleyball. They went to the same school, they joined the same club, they are together more often than not. So, somewhere between then and now. Kageyama is more comfortable with the short answer.

The long answer involves practice, hours and days and weeks and months of practice, the pair of them staying at school long after the others have gone, tossing a volleyball by the light of street lamps and overheads and sometimes the moon. It involves mastering their quicks and all the speed bumps and roadblocks that got in the way. It involves an innate desire to compete with each other, to push each other to their limits and then push some more. It involves study sessions on weekends where they try and fail to get their work done before they move on to the more important stuff, like volleyball. It involves Hinata's loud voice and his loud presence and every stupid, insignificant, important, heavy, knock-down drag-out fight they've ever had. They've had so many Kageyama can't even keep track of them all.

It involves the times they grin at each other when something great happens, when they both feel the same enthusiasm, mirroring expressions on their faces.

It involves the phrase, "It's just Hinata and Kageyama." Because apparently their behavior around each other is so distinctive that this alone is enough to explain anything. Their teammates don't even bat an eye at them anymore, though they are always ready to diffuse a bomb if they need to, and there's no shortage of jokes.

It involves the time Hinata stretched his arms over his head as high as they would go, so that the bottom of his shirt rode up to reveal a strip of his toned stomach, like the glimpse of a pearl in an oyster. (He'd rolled his eyes at himself _and_ Hinata's pearly abs but not until his heart rate returned to normal.)

Kageyama is definitely more comfortable with the short answer.

He's comfortable right this very moment, too, he realizes with a start. Hinata's weight resting against him doesn't feel claustrophobic, it feels...nice. And that freaks him out a little bit. It's almost a relief when he sees the wet mark on his sleeve and his blood pressure goes on the rise. At least he isn't so taken by this new...whatever that the sight of Hinata's drool makes him smile, or he might have a nervous breakdown.

Still, he doesn't shove Hinata off. He'll make him pay in some other fashion. Later. He's kinda busy sta- _looking_. At his own shoulder. Because it belongs to him and if he wants to look at it, he is allowed to look. People look at their shoulders all the time.

Hinata's head has since slid lower, and he rubs his face in Kageyama's arm.

Rubs. His face.

Kageyama is not going to survive this bus ride.

***  
He survives the bus ride.

Hinata wakes up in the parking lot, and when he does, he yawns wide enough for his jaw to crack, blinks, and grabs Kageyama's sleeve, stretching it out between his hands. The drool mark is a huge, wide circle that he seems positively awed by.

"Whoaaaaa," he says, followed by a quick, "Sorry," when Kageyama fixes him with a look he hopes would strip paint. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Yes, why didn't he. The question of the hour. "Not my job," he points out. "Dumbass. Watch where you put your face next time."

"I'll make sure I drool even more," Hinata snipes as they gather up their gear. He yawns another jaw-cracking yawn. "Since your job is to be my pillow, I guess."

Kageyama hears snickers behind them, and he contemplates tossing Hinata through a window. He settles for digging his fist into the crown of Hinata's head while Hinata flaps about wildly and tries to step on his foot.

That night Kageyama takes off his shirt and holds it up, examines the sleeve. The drool mark has mostly dried but there's a hint of it left - he traces his finger around it. Before he does something gross like _press his shirt against his face_ , he tosses it in the hamper in the corner of his room and makes a mental note to do the wash soon.

"His pillow," he mutters when he's climbed into bed with his volleyball and does sets, waiting for sleep.

Except the thing is, he's pretty sure he won't wake Hinata up if it happens again.

Kageyama catches the volleyball.

He's screwed.

***  
It happens again.

On the way home from training camp, packed into the same bus, sitting in the same seats. This time, Hinata turns so his back is to Kageyama and leans up against him, as if issuing a challenge.

"Hinata." Kageyama's voice is a dry, barren wasteland. His fingers twitch.

"I won't drool on you this way," is Hinata's response, as he shifts around and attempts to find the perfect position. When he's finally satisfied, Kageyama bears most of his weight.

"I'll shove you into the aisle if you don't get off."

"Not your job," Hinata says sleepily, his eyes already closed. "Right?"

Why did he ever say that? Why did he open his stupid mouth and let those words come out of it? Because he wasn't thinking at the time. Obviously.

"You know what I meant," he hisses, but the words fall on deaf ears.

Hinata's asleep, completely passed out, even snoring a bit. His head drifts to one side, and Kageyama can see his face. His mouth is open slightly. For some reason, Kageyama cannot look away from his mouth. His Cupid mouth.

(Pearly abs, Cupid mouth, what is wrong with him.)

(There is a lot wrong with him.)

Ugh, Kageyama feels like such a creep.

Stubbornly, he squeezes his eyes shut and is determined to keep them shut the rest of the trip home. He is successful in this - so successful, in fact, that he falls asleep himself and doesn't wake up until they are five minutes from the school. When he squints his eyes open, the first thing he notices is that Hinata's entire face is pressed against his arm, just about. The second thing he notices is he'd rested his head on top of Hinata's, so they must've slept that way for the duration of the trip. The third thing he notices is Nishinoya and Tanaka are staring at them, their eyes wide and unblinking, like a pair of owls.

The eyes are joined by teeth as Nishinoya and Tanaka grin their widest grins. "Cuuuuuute," they say in unison.

Kageyama lets out a dignified sqwawk. Laughter follows, and by that point Hinata has woken up. He drags his face away with a groan, looks first at a glaring, blushing Kageyama (he is blushing, he knows he's blushing and it drives him bananas), then over at Nishinoya and Tanaka.

"I was in the middle of a really good dream," he says in an accusatory voice - loud, as always.

"How much did you drool?" Tanaka says, halfway out of his seat.

"Inquiring minds need to know," Nishinoya says, halfway out of his.

"Ohhh, lemme see - " Hinata says, inching closer.

Kageyama feels the urge to guard his shoulder. Also to scream. "Stay the hell away from me. I'll take on all three of you."

"So spake the King, from his castle of saliva, provided by the royal dog," Tsukishima chimes in, because of course he does.

***  
Somehow, they all make it off the bus in one piece.

Turns out, Hinata was true to his word and he did produce more drool, as promised. The circle on Kageyama's sleeve is much larger than it was the first time. (He discovers this at home, alone, away from prying eyes.)

And, like before, he has to wrestle with himself to toss his shirt in the hamper instead of burying his face in it.

***  
Late, after practice, Kageyama and Hinata keep a volleyball in play between them. For a while, they don't talk to one another, merely focus on the ball. Hinata's receives are still pretty terrible, but they've gotten much better than they used to be when he started.

"I fall asleep on you on purpose, you know," Hinata says, out of the blue.

Kageyama is so startled he fumbles the ball, and for once, he's the one who runs, cursing, after it. Hinata has his arms crossed over his chest when Kageyama returns; he scuffs the toe of his shoe against the asphalt, like he expects something.

Kageyama tucks the ball under his arm. "What, to piss me off? Or do you like the sight of your drool on my sleeve that much?"

Perhaps this is Kageyama, having his nervous breakdown. Because he likes the sight of Hinata's drool on his sleeve. Or, rather, he likes the idea of the sight of Hinata's drool on his sleeve. The actual drool itself is disgusting. Or whatever.

Hinata puffs out his cheeks. "All of the above?" Then he laughs at the flat look Kageyama gives him, but it's not mocking laughter. "Because I want to."

Huh?

"Hinata - "

"Your shirt smells good and your arm's comfortable." Hinata uncrosses his arms, takes a few steps closer.

Kageyama stands there stupidly. If he could kick his own ass, he'd probably do it.

"And my face fits there, it just - fits, like you've got this space carved out and it's mine, so why wouldn't I use it?" Hinata is so close, he slaps the volleyball out of Kageyama's weakened hold with a triumphant grin.

There are plenty of ways Kageyama can think of to react. Continue standing there stupidly. Steal the volleyball back from Hinata and serve it at his shins. Tell Hinata he's delusional, shoulders do not have face-shaped spaces for other people built into them.

Kissing Hinata is the worst option, so that's the one he chooses.

Their height difference makes it awkward, along with their inexperience, but Hinata's mouth, his Cupid mouth, opens under Kageyama's and they kiss and they fumble and they touch, his fingers in Hinata's hair, Hinata's hands on his cheeks, the volleyball at their feet.

He expected Hinata to push him away. He didn't expect Hinata to kiss him back.

When they break apart, they both draw in shaky breaths.

"See? I fit," Hinata says.

"No, you're too short," Kageyama replies, and he wraps his arms around Hinata, crushes Hinata's face against his chest so he can't protest loudly, even though the protests do come. Because of course they do.

***  
How did we get so close?

The long answer isn't that bad, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, boys. I hope you all enjoyed! <3


End file.
